The Citizen, 1999-01-13, Page 1Feature I Travel Entertainment
woman leaves on
Brussels ~
See page 6 See page 8
Indies and art movies get
special viewing at
Wingham theatre
See page 19
County shoots
for 0% increase
Huron County council has
instructed its administrative staff to
aim for a zero tax increase again in
1999 but achieving the goal will
only be possible if the province’s
downloading of services is as “rev
enue neutral” as promised.
While both Premier Mike Harris
and Finance Minister Ernie Eves
have promised the cost of down
loaded services will equal the
money saved by the province tak
ing on education funding, the coun
ty’s added expenses for 1998 had
already surpassed the cost savings
by mid-Novcmber.
However, since the province is
still guaranteeing revenue neutrali
ty, the county is hoping that it will
receive additional money in March
or April to make up the shortfall. If
not, council authorized staff to raise
taxes to be put into a special Coun
ty Reinvestment Fund.
While the province has turned
over funding of agencies such as
social housing and ambulances, it
has not given management of these
agencies to local officials. County
officials hope to be able to make
efficiency savings once the county
is given management of the ser
vices.
The North Huron
itizen
Blyth ‘boy’ tells his story
H. Layton (Harry) Bray, who
spent his childhood years in Blyth
before going on to a colourful
career flying aircraft in both war
and peace, has written the story of
his life in his memoir Lap of the
Gods.
Born in Exeter in 1921,’Bray
moved to Blyth when his father
Vivian Morcom Bray was posted to
Blyth as manager of the Bank of
Commerce. Bray proudly notes that
while there is no mention of his
birth in Exeter, his name is on the
Memorial Hall honour roll of 105
men and women from the Blyth
area who served in World War II.
In his memoir, Bray recalls boy
hood adventures from hitching
rides on the back of sleighs on their
way out of town to riding ice flows
down Blyth Creek during spring
breakup. Visiting one of Blyth’s
two railway stations for the twice-
daily arrival of trains was a high
light of the day. Ort Stubbs, he
recalls, drove a horse-drawn dray to
the stations to pick up passengers.
It was a time when horses still
played a major role in rural life and
Bray learned to shoe horses at the
blacksmith shop of "Windy"
Phillips. There were two black
smith shops, he recalls, the Phillips
shop, patronized by Protestants and
the Kelly shop which attracted a
Catholic clientele.
As he got older he worked on the
farm of Torrance Dundas for 35
cents a day and worked with Billy
Thuell as he began installing elec
tricity on local farms.
Though he would later spend
30,000 hours flying, Bray’s first
taste of flight was so frightening he
almost refused to fly again. A barn
storming pilot landed in a field
north of Blyth and gave rides.
"It was a matter of honour with
these wandering barnstormers to
get a certain percentage of their
passengers violently ill," he writes.
"Being rather stubborn I got an
unusually long ride. Although the
pilot failed to get my stomach, he
left a very firm resolve in my mind
never to go near a heavier than air
machine again."
Later, while vacationing on the
Ottawa River, he had a more happy
experience and when the Second
World War broke out he and his
best friend Ernie Robinson took off
by motorcycle for Ottawa where
they hoped to enlist.
Between the beginning of his
pilot training and his retirement
from flying decades later, Bray
seemed to pump more adrenaline
than most people pump gas. His
stories range from getting lost in
the dark among the peaks of the
Rockies while training student nav
igators to barely escaping early
death at the hands of Japanese anti
aircraft gunners on Sumatra in the
far-eastern campaign. The title of
the book recalls the many times
Bray feels his life was in the “lap of
the gods” but he was delivered
from death.
Flying took Bray to a wide vari
ety of comers of the earth during
the war. He camped out in tents in
Alaska as part of a force sent to
fend off a possible Japanese inva
sion and suffered 120° heat, insects
and disease in the Madras area of
India where he nearly died of ill
ness.
Following the war Bray set up
his own airline in Kamloops, B.C.,
flying fishermen into north B.C.
lakes and government officials to
remote areas. He was also involved
in helping get medical help to resi
dents in trouble in remote areas of
the province.
Later, after selling his company,
Bray worked for other companies
doing everything from fighting
fires using converted World War II
fighter-bombers to ferrying sup
plies to Baffin Island where the
U.S. government was building the
Distant Early Warning line of radar
stations. He flew for the govern
ment of British Honduras and flew
charter jets.
A copy of Lap of the Gods has
been donated by Gordon Elliott to
the Blyth Branch of the Huron
County Library for those who want
to hear more about the exciting life
of this former Blyth resident.
County to cover court security costs
If Huron County proceeds with a
contract for county-wide policing
all municipalities will share the
cost of providing security in courts,
not just the towns where the court
is held.
Huron County council agreed, at
its Jan. 7 meeting, with a request
from the Town of Goderich that
court security costs should be
shared by the whole county. Under
provincial legislation the munici
pality where the court is held is
responsible for providing police as
security in courts.
Most court cases are held in
Goderich though there are also ses-
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